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Day 21, Colmar to Selestat - 44 kilometers

Route Conditions: Bicycle paths for most of the way with very few intersections allowing for extended stop free riding with no vehicle traffic. Directions: It would be impossible to give directions unless looking at a cycle path map. Pick one up in any of the TI offices.

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    We felt that we didn't really do Colmar justice and would have liked to stay another day to explore more of the city but we were booked into a hotel in Selestat and had to move on. We had breakfast at the hostel and then went down to get the bikes out of storage and load them with our panniers. We saw another tandem in the garage and the couple was soon down, loading up their machine as well. The team had found a way to use standard daypacks as panniers. The operation involved using a wooden bar through the shoulder straps of both packs, dropping one pack on each side of the rack. The wooden dowel and straps supported the packs and the team had fastened thin plywood shields against the sides of the rack to keep the packs or straps from tangling in the spokes of the rear wheel.

 The French couple had been given the tandem 25 years ago by their children and had ridden the bike all over Europe. We exchanged information and found that we were both heading in the same general direction although our day's objectives were slightly different. They had another cycling map that appeared more complete than ours. They offered it to us saying they had a newer version of the same map and there was no sense in their carrying two of the same thing. We exchanged addresses and took off, wishing each other a good voyage.

    Because Selestat was not that far away we decided to ride up into the hills on the west side of the valley and visit the villages of Riquewihr and Ribeauville, two medieval villages that were supposed to be storybook appearing. The route was almost all cycle paths, and therefore free from any vehicle traffic. We followed the maps, sometimes referring to the one given us in Mulhouse and sometimes referring to the one given us by the French couple.

    It wasn't long before we found ourselves in the small village of Keintzheim, looking at a small road traveling up the side of a hill covered with vineyards. We cycled up the hill, alternately walking the bikes and cycling depending on the angle of climb on the roadway. Suddenly Roxcie called to us. She had another flat. I pulled the tube and examined the the tire, this time finding a thorn in the casing. I pulled the thorn and Jeanette asked if she could do the repairs this time, using one of the glueless patches. I didn't argue. 

    We were soon up and cycling again, this time Jeanette was on the single, determined to ride to the top of the hill. She slowed, slowed, slowed and then fell over. Just about that time a car came up the hill. Jeanette was laying on her back, bike covering her, holding up one arm signaling for the car to stop and laughing to the point of crying. She asked me to pull the bike off and then stood up, dusted herself off and said maybe she'd walk the bike for a while.

    The top of that hill revealed a saddle and then another hill. We tackled that one only to find another saddle and another hill. A road lead back to the valley and Jeanette said maybe we had bit off a little more than we could handle, maybe we should just head back down to the valley. I suggested we go the remaining 50 yards to see what lay beyond the crest of the hill. We reached the top to see the little village of Riquewihr tucked at the bottom of the hill, less than a quarter mile away. We broke 45k per hour riding down into the village.

    If you've ever read Hans Christian Anderson or the Brothers Grimm, you know what these towns look like, you just don't realize that there are real places that look like this. Walt Disney, even with cartoon imaging cannot do justice to these places. I would not have been surprised if I would have met the seven dwarfs, the old witch, or Snow White while visiting this town.

    We window shopped from store to store, all the time figuring out where we might eat lunch. We came upon a store that sold witches on all stages of spell casting and broom riding, each figure from six inches to eighteen inches high and each an individual work of art. Jeanette had to buy two, one for her office and one for the house. We'd worry how to transport them as the need arose.

    We visited a bucherie/patisserie for lunch and sat on the steps of a shop and ate lunch, enjoying the view of all the people walking around and the impressive architecture. Some more window shopping and then it was time to continue on to Ribeauville, another of the picturesque villages. We got ready to ride out and discovered that the glueless patch on Roxcie's tube had failed again. I took the tire apart and put a conventional patch on the hole. I threw the rest of the glueless patches away.

    The ride to Ribeauville was a gentle downhill but the town was a little more modern than Riquewihr and there was a flea market going on so we decided to just take in the sights as we rode through and continue on to Selestat. We followed the bike paths through farmers fields of sometimes six foot high corn, sometimes vineyards and tried to follow the maps. We soon found ourselves lost and had to backtrack but picked up the trail again. When we were close to Selestat we gave up trying to follow the maps and ended up on the D159 for the last run into Selestat. Even this road had a bike path a few yards off the roadway so we followed it into town where it merged with the surface street.

    The road took us right to the old village and we looked for our hotel, finding it through a portal that lead to a pedestrian only area. Since we arrived around 4:30, we all wanted to get upstairs to our room to see Lance's progress on the tour. He was solidly in the lead. 

    Our room was nice and comfy and we had a window that opened onto the pedestrian area. We took our time cleaning up and then headed downstairs for a foot tour of the town. We explored the little side streets, visited the protestant and catholic churches and walked the main drag, looking at the buildings and inspecting the posted menus for possible dinner options. Although the weather had been nice all day, it clouded up and sprinkled for a while as we walked the streets, cooling everything down. We decided to eat dinner at one place and dessert at another. Both were great. We walked back to our room with the realization that tomorrow would be our last long ride, from Selestat to Strasbourg. We checked the weather report on the TV before drifting off to sleep. It was supposed to pour rain in buckets.

Accommodations and Recommendations:

Auberge Des Allies
39 Rue des Chevaliers
67000 Selestat
Tel: 03 88 92 09
E61 for three, no breakfast

Day 22, Selestat to Strasbourg - 65 kilometers

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